One year after the last war in Lebanon, Hezbollah remains a mystery. For the first time, its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, accepted the presence of Western cameras inside the organization and answers, under high security, the most delicate questions. By retracing the history of this movement, Le Mystère Hezbollah [The Mystery of Hezbollah], an exceptional documentary, provides the keys to understanding what comes into play in this region.

Who are these "fanatics of God" who resisted the Israeli army's attacks in 2006? "Terrorists" according to Bush, "dangerous fundamentalists" according to the international opinion, or simple militants of the Shi'i Islamic persuasion engaged in the democratic life of their country for their supporters?

The reality is undoubtedly as complex as the history of Hezbollah, a movement which provokes the most contradictory reactions in this multicultural society characterized by the coexistence of various religious currents.

After months-long negotiations, Jean-François Boyer, international journalist and film maker, and Alain Gresh, writer and journalist of Le Monde Diplomatique, received an authorization to film Hezbollah installations, to publish some of its previously unpublished archives, and to question its charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Not evading any question, Nasrallah himself speaks about not only Hezbollah's relations with the Lebanese government, the Palestinians, Iran, and the source of its funds and weapons, but also its position on the state of Israel, whose legitimacy Hezbollah has always officially denied.

At the Heart of the "Party of God"

Educated by Iranian clerics, the Shi'i leader has maintained very strong bonds with Ayatollah Khamenei. The accusation of being the "armed hands of the Iranian revolution" always gets applied to the Lebanese movement. On this point, the response of Nasrallah is at the very least ambiguous: "Give me a single example in the twenty-five years of its existence where Hezbollah served the interests of Iran against those of Lebanon.". . .

A product of various Shi'i groups, Hezbollah lived in the shadow during the first fifteen years of its existence. At the end of the civil war, it became the only one authorized by Syria to continue armed struggle at the Israeli border in southern Lebanon.

In 1992, Nasrallah committed his movement to the electoral process to give it democratic legitimacy. In 2007, Hezbollah is one of the major Lebanese parliamentary factions with its fourteen deputies. Today, it is mobilizing, with the principal Christian party, for a national unity government.

On its military role, the position of Nasrallah is clear: "The question of weapons is tied to the conflict with the Israeli enemy. . . . Hezbollah has never used them inside Lebanon. All the elections in which it has taken part really show that we are committed to the electoral process and the life of the nation."

In the south of Lebanon, Hezbollah troops, less visible but always well armed, remain ready to act. "As long as the Lebanese army can manage the problem, we do not intervene. But if the Lebanese army and the UNFIL are unable to solve it, then the resistance goes into action." The term well summarizes one of Hezbollah's principal raisons d'être: a Lebanese movement of resistance against Israel.

An objective shared by many other Lebanese, if we are to believe Michel Samaha, the number two leader of Maronite Christians, allied with the "Party of God." From Beirut to southern Lebanon, the two journalists traveled to meet not only Hezbollah combatants, the object of a veritable cult worship, and their families but also representatives of the main political parties of Lebanon and their militants.

Their investigation equally led them to the scenes of Hezbollah's social action -- schools and hospitals financed mainly by the organization -- as well as the premises of the Al-Manar network, the most watched network in Lebanon, considered to be the Hezbollah media.

In a country where tensions are always high, Hezbollah shows that it remains an actor impossible to ignore among the opposing forces.

Hello Yoshie, i came across Le mystère Hezbollah on youtube and really liked it, it contains some hard to find scenes but i found you talking about forming an english subtitle of this film so how far did you reach doing this and is it available, i already downloaded the film via torrents web but the idea of spending one hour watching scenes and hearing people talking words i don't understand doesn't seem the interesting to me so if there's an english subtitle of this film i really really need it Yoshie